Sorry for another one of these posts, but I too have fallen victim of the downlaod the driver debacle and still haven't found a way to get back online.

Having downloaded the driver update (I wasn't given the option of navigating away from it) I haven't been able to connect, so i figured the logical idea would be to uninstall both AOL and the modem and start again.

I uninstalled AOL, and reinstalled it. All seemed to be going well, until a message popped up saying

"AOL will now install the files required for you to connect to the service. You may be asked to restart your computer. If you don not you will be unable to connect to the service"

I click OK, and the PC restarts. I start the AOL software, but the same mesage pops up again. I click OK and the PC restarts (Clicking no just exits the AOL software) so I am stuck in a hopeless cycle.

Any ideas what the probel is here?

The 2nd problem came with the modem and the drivers. I try to uninstall the modem via the control panel, add/remove programs route, but when I click to remover the modem, nothing happens. Nothing at all. This is a nightmare as I can't re-install the modem software without first uninstalling it. Any ideas as to how to get the modem off my machine so I can reinstall?

I haven't been able to get online for about 3 weeks now, and as you can imagine, the AOL helpdesk have been utterly useless.

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JohnChief Scrimper, Woodworker, cyclist & MotorbikerIf everything seems to be going well, you have obviously overlooked something A part dropped from the workbench will roll to a degree of un-reachability proportional to its importance.

I am on XP. Forgivve me for the daft sounding question but if I did run System Restore what sort of data would I lose?

Thanks for any help...

Originally Posted by RookeryMike

If you use system restore you will not loose any of your saved data but any drivers and programmes loaded before the restore date you choose will be removed or the drivers rolled back to earlier ones i.e. before you installed the Aol stuff!

System restore can be very useful!

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JohnChief Scrimper, Woodworker, cyclist & MotorbikerIf everything seems to be going well, you have obviously overlooked something A part dropped from the workbench will roll to a degree of un-reachability proportional to its importance.

Is it possible to connect to the internet without using tyhe AOL software?

Originally Posted by RookeryMike

I use Aol without anything Aol on my PC, I use a cheap wired ADSL modem router cost £29 from ebuyer, take it out of the box anf plug it in and away it goes, networks my PC's and provides AOL to all the PC's 24/7.

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JohnChief Scrimper, Woodworker, cyclist & MotorbikerIf everything seems to be going well, you have obviously overlooked something A part dropped from the workbench will roll to a degree of un-reachability proportional to its importance.

I had a similar problem when i initially installed the new drivers, the old ones would not go. U need to run the doctor.exe file. U can find this on the original driver disk that came with the modem, runs in about 1 second so u dont see it, but it works.

- First uninstall all AOL programs going through Control Panel > Add/Remove Programs
- Restart Machine
- Go into registry i.e. Start Menu > Run , now type regedit and click OK
- DO NOT MESS AROUND IN HERE, ONLY DO THE SAME AS ME
- Using the navigation on the left go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE and click the +
- Now go to SOFTWARE and click +
- Now America Online and click +
- You'll now see lots of folders inside America Online, now I'm not claiming that you need to delete all of these that I did, but these are the ones I deleted, and at least one of them must have been preventing it from working. To delete them right click and select delete: ACS, American Online, AOL, Common, OCP, Uninstalls, AOL Toolbar.
- Now close down the registry editor.
- Now commence a new AOL install, and hopefully Happy Days like me.

I got an I.T. friend to execute this fix for me which didn't work. I've had AOL software crash on me for over 2 months now. AOL phone support were useless.

The waol.exe splash screen just freezes for ages before the message saying that aol will install files to allow me to connect to the service.

Also, I have cleaned the system registry with both System Mechanic and Active System Care which reports no problems with Windows, so it looks more like an AOL problem rather than a Microsoft problem. I can connect with Internet Explorer, but the AOL webmail is dreadful!